The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-10-07
BACON OR SHAKESPEARE.

The announcement of Ignatius DON
nelly's forthcoming work on the Ba-
con-Shakespeare controversy, has
awakened renewed interest in that
subject. The following is synopsis
of paper recently read before the Ba-
con Society of London by Mr.. Fran
els FeaIon, and presents in compact
form the reasons why a great many
students of Shakespeare Plays ascribe
their authorship to Lord Bacon.
1. DID FRANCIS BACON WRITE "suAKEsrEARE9'
The natural answer would be, Certainly
not. Can the tradition of three centuries be
wrong? Were our ancestors ignorant! Was
Shakspcre himself an imposter? Were his
contemporaries aud friends deceived? Were
his successors of the next generations unable
to detect the imposture?
'Do you mean TO say that there is any
serious doubt that VIII Shdkspere, the acknowl-
edged author of the wonderful Plays that bear
his name-the Swan Of Avon, canonized a the
divine bard for three csnturies-wrote the
Plays?
''No, no, sir: 1 won't have it. SHAKESPEARE
has always been Shakespeare to me, and SO he
shall remain.
"And as for Francis BacOn-Lord Bacon
having written Shakespere's plays! why
Introduce that heavy and philosophic person on
the sccneP What had he to do with the mstter9
Certainly, now you mention it, the two
men lived at about the same period, but two
persons more differently nodded in notions and
a. ~, II
err.
Had Lord Bacon written Play 1t would
have.bsen ponderous disquisition In dialogue,
. legal or phil0sophic essay in blank verse.
And as for his having written Shakespere's
Plays. why, good gracious, sir! what do you
mean? You are labOring under q serious mental
delusion. Betake yourself to some quiet retreat
and stay there until you have cleared your mind
of 1t aud have returned once more to the ortho-
dox belief that Will Shakspere wrote the Plays
that have passed by his name, q belief which
was good enough for our fathers and our.grand-
fathers and may well suffice for us.''
Such, take 1t. Is, with little exaggeratiOn.
the sentiment with which the majority Of
persons first hear the idea propounded that the
Will Shakspere Of history did not write the
Plays which have SO long gone by his name,
and that Francis Bacon did.
Nevertheless. L will endeavor to do something
to convince my readers that there is, at all
events, some method in the madness of those
who, like myself, are converts to the new and
spreading belief.
What, then. is shakspere's title to the author
ship? OF course. he claimed it to himself?
Strange as it may appear, there is no record
Of his having done so; and yet he seems to
have been bustling man of the world, by no
means different; money-making. manager of a
theater; not e person likely to have held his
own light uuler bushel, but one who would
rather have boosted and made the most Of his
literary attachments; one who. in making, as
he did, will, entering into details of his
chattels and effects. down to his old bedstead,
would not have been silent, as he was, as to his
manuscripts and literary property, which
would, had he possessed any, have been the
source Of his fortune. Surely he would have
appointed literary executor, with directions
as to the revision and republication of his
plays. Nine Of the thirty-seven plays usually
credited to Shakspere were meyer heard of unit
the seventh year after his death, and all of the
thirty-seven were in that year published, with
considerable. Concentrations by some masterhand
unknown. The 1929 Folio has thirtv-six plays
Ofthese. eighteen were printed then for the
first time-four more were so changed, matur-
ed or developed as to be practically new.
Therefore, for the text Of twenty-five out of
thirty-six We are dependent ON the Folio. OF
the remaining fourteen, only nine are not
seriously changed from the original quartos
The remaining five are sos 1altered that,
the original quartos are good, the
altered editions IN the Folio are alone authori-
tative.
But do not the Plays themselves bear exter-
nal evidence Of his authorship Is not his name
upon them? and was this inscription ever
challenged?
1t seems to be hardly understood that seven
OF Shakespeare's plays-Tffus Androaicus;
Romeo and Juliet, Richard IT., Richard Ill.,, first
part OF Henry w., and second and third parts
Of Henry VI.-were originally brought ont with |
out any authors name on the title page; that |
six editions OF the poem. Venus and Adonis, and |
four Of Lscrece were also thus published. |
Several editions OF the poems and OF certain |
plays were published before lGls. OF these |
editions, twenty-seven had no authors name /
On the title page. |
And Fhen the name Of Shakespeare did - I
pear outside the printed edition, and assuming